In an Instant
by An Unknown Writer
Summary: This is a play off of A Christmas Carol. Audry is growing up in the Great Depression and must deal with the fact that life isn't perfect. She meets a few Presidents along the way. Please R&R!


_A/N: This story is a play off of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. I felt like posting it here because I am really proud of it! I wrote it for my English class. Enjoy!_

**In an Instant **

**By An Unknown Writer**

It was December 24th, in the year 1932 and Audry Collins, an average height, dirty blonde girl of thirteen, could not believe her mother and father were taking her to the soup kitchen to help out where all the hoods and bents were currently staying. She knew that others were not as fortunate after the stock market crash, as her father often kindly reminded her. Her family was a well-to-do type with almost every type of luxury imaginable. Even as a "tom-boy," playing baseball with the boys at recess, getting dirty, she thought it disgusting to help such grimy and dirty hobos.

"Aud! Come on," Robert, her twin brother called from the driveway. "Mother would like us to leave now so that we can get there early."

"Won't that be swell," Audry remarked. "I suppose that you would actually like to go Rob?"

"Aww Aud!

Get into the Christmas Spirit! A day 'till Christmas and you still haven't mastered it. Anyway most of the people there are families, hoping to get a hot meal."

"Come on Audry! Get a move on!" James, their five year old brother, whined. "Mommy said we'll go to the Parlor after to geta' ice cream if we're good!"

"Oh well is that the reason you're going?" she laughed.

"Maaaybe," he replied as he hopped into the car.

"Audry! Get a move on. I'm sure if you…" Mother started to reply but became quiet as Audry reluctantly climbed into the backseat of the family car. She had a long face on the entire ride to the soup kitchen.

In about twenty minutes they came to a halt outside the rundown building that was the soup kitchen. A long, cold, and hungry line of anxious people stood along the wall, waiting to get inside. Audry lingered and slowly trudged towards the entrance. Of all the people on the line, a tramp, looking like a kindly fellow, with big asking eyes like those of a pug's, said, "Excuse me Miss, but do you need any help around your household?"

"I'm very sorry, but," Audry paused, making sure her family was not looking, "I'm sorry, but no," she finished bluntly.

The tramp turned away, crestfallen, at his attempt to obtain a job. Audry quickened her pace and hurried through the doorway to the kitchen where she would be working.

---

Time passes when you are having fun, but that was not the case for Audry Collins. The only excitement was when James slipped on some spilled milk, fell down, and stained his new pants. Although that was funny at the time, it could not recompense for the boredom during the time lost serving the hoods. Audry was glad when her father said it was time to go home. They all piled into the car and set off for home.

"Jeepers Audry. You look tired. Mommy, I don't think we should get the ice cream any more 'cause Audry looks mighty tired," James said when he realized that Audry was slouched in her seat. She started to say no but Mother interrupted saying that it was very considerate that James was thinking that. "You had better get right to bed then so you won't get sick for Christmas."  
"Well that's just swell, going to bed while the boys get to have fun," Audry mumbled so that her mother couldn't hear. She faked yawning and said, "Yes, I think I'll do just that."

As soon as they arrived home, Mother sent Audry straight to bed after she had a bite to eat. As hard as Audry tried, she could not get the tramp's face out of her head. It was as if he had come back to haunt her just because she had turned his offer down in a cruel way.

"There's no use. You are a hallucination and you'll go away in the morning," Audry whispered as she yawned silently. And with that, she fell sound asleep.

---

Audry opened her eyes slowly. All she could see was a medium height, balding older man but soon realized, "Jiminy Cricket! You're Calvin Coolidge! But you're supposed… to be dead."

"Yes, yes. Yet here I am. I am here to show you the past, of a certain person that you met today," Mr. Coolidge said as a whirlwind whisked them off to another dimension. This dimension was known as the Roaring Twenties.

Before Audry could ask who he was talking about, she soon recognized the tramp from earlier that day. She could only guess what this excursion was about, but none of her guesses were close to the real reason.

"I assume that you were wondering what this is all about, but it shall unwind itself in due time. This 'tramp' as you call him, was once a wealthy stock broker but unfortunately lost everything in twenty-nine." Audry now stood gaping at what the former president was saying. Her usually bright eyes were now dimmed with disbelief.

"I never thought that some of the people at the soup kitchen were once middle and upper class, not that it matters," she added quickly.

"Never judge a book by its cover. Some people may be the nicest people, but could look like hoodlums on the outside," Mr. Coolidge replied. "Things are never what they appear to be. You must be prepared."

"For what?" Audry pondered as she looked about the room. It became obvious that they could not be seen or heard.

The tramp was sitting in a nicely furnished parlor, reading the New York Times while the rest of his family was happily reading a book. The two young children sat perfectly still while their mother read in a dynamic voice.

All of a sudden, the whirlwind reappeared in the back left corner of the room and sucked Mr. Coolidge and Audry into its vortex of colors. The family scene was now fading into a fine mist. Their happy faces seemed to evaporate into thin air. PLUMP! Audry landed not so softly on her bed. Mr. Coolidge was nowhere in sight.

"Be prepared for what?" she whispered as she climbed into her still warm bundle of blankets. The New York City skyline seemed to glitter like a million tiny stars from her bedroom window. "The old geezer apparently didn't know what he was talking about." She shuddered and fell asleep once more.

---

"High time. High time," a strangely familiar voice called out through Audry's bedchamber. A portly, mid-height looking man paced the far wall closest to the door. When his head turned so that the moonlight shined on his face, Audry immediately recognized him as President Herbert Hoover. "Come now Audry. You need a little insight of how fortunate you are."

"Excuse me sir, but first of all how do you know my name?" Audry started to say but the whirlwind of previous hours was quickly catching and drowning out her voice. This new whirlwind dropped the two people down in a "Hooverville" east of town that the Collins had passed on the way to the soup kitchen.

"Look about you Audry Collins. What do you see? Poverty? Depression? Hunger? This is what many people have to go through. People are not as fortunate as you are. Things may even change in the way that you least expect it," President Hoover proclaimed as though he was giving a speech. Audry saw the tramp and his family, laughing about something in their shanty. They were obviously content and happy, even though their plight was not all that.

"I don't exactly understand about the part about the change. Surely you are mistaken. I mean, my father is a successful banker at a large and popular bank," Audry replied cautiously.

"Ahh young miss. You are reluctant to admit that the times may or may not change against you and your family's favor. Like this man over here. What did you call him again? Oh yes, 'tramp.' As you saw with my predecessor, the tramp was not a disgrace to mankind. He was once an honest and caring man, husband, and father, and still is. Look at how happy they are, even in the midst of these terrible times. The least you could have said earlier at his proposition was that you would ask your mother. I am most certain that she would have at least considered his proposition. That fellow there deserves something better than what they have now," President Hoover boomed.

"I suppose that I never looked at how bad these people have it. I thought that they had always brought it upon themselves. I never realized that many of these people could have been my family, but we were just fortunate enough for my father to keep his job," Audry remarked remorsefully.

"Yes but now is not yet the time for regret and pity. We must move along for my time here with you grows short." With that, the whirlwind swept them out of the "Hooverville," landing Audry back in her bedroom for the second time that night. She silently hoped that this was the last of the visitations to come to her this night.

'This is all a dream. I'll wake up soon, and we'll go downstairs and open the presents under the tree that Santa has brought,' she thought, not daring to speak in case another specter managed to enter her room.

---

Audry slowly opened her eyes, afraid of what she might see. As she peered through her semi- open eyelids, she could see the outline of a tall man with slightly graying hair standing in her doorway. As she opened her eyes wider, it took a couple of seconds for her to recognize the man as Mr. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the president-elect.

"Well come now Audry. It's high time that you woke up. I know you are awake," Mr. Roosevelt said to Audry. She started to speak but instantly knew it was no use when she noticed the whirlwind coming to take them into another dimension for the third time this night.

After the whisking was complete, Audry did not recognize where she was. It was obviously a "Hooverville" of some sort. Yet something about this place was familiar, but she could not pinpoint what it was.

"Let's have a look around, shall we?" Mr. Roosevelt said as he motioned to walk around the shanty village. Never in Audry's life, not even earlier, had she seen such poor conditions anywhere. As they walked on, she saw some familiar faces -- her family! She had never in her life seen them so depressed, so sad!

"Gard, will you go down to the stream and get a bucket of water?" Mother asked, with a hint of sadness in her voice. "I'm about to make a stew out of the meat you earned at the butcher's."

"Yes dear. Now where is that pot? Audry, have you seen Mother's cooking pot?" Father said. The 1932 Audry gasped at what she saw. The older Audry stepped out of the shack that she supposed was home. She guessed that she was about fifteen, but was as pale as ever and so skinny she could have hid behind a telegraph pole. Older Audry said that it was in the storage shed in back of the shanty. Robert appeared from behind carrying the pot, but looking miserable. His hair was matted down and his clothes were covered in grime.

"Here it is," Robert said, panting because of the pot's weight. He groaned as he set it down for his father to take to the stream. 1932 Audry did not even want to imagine what this stream looked like. She could not take this sight of her family being so grim and depressed. The only one that seemed a tad happy was James, who seemed to have grown a mile.

"You see, not everything can be perfect. By doing everything that you can to help out, at home and at your school, can help end this great depression," Mr. Roosevelt added when he saw the astonishment on the 1932 Audry's face. "Sometimes, by doing the smallest thing imaginable, it can make a world of difference."

"Yes sir. But I was wondering, will this really happen?" Audry pondered.

"Only if it is made so. We do not know what the future holds. This glimpse you are seeing is only a path that your family could go down. It may be unlikely, or it could be fate that it is supposed to happen," Roosevelt replied. "We must be going. It is nearly midnight."

The whirlwind swept them back to 1932.

---

"Audry! Audry! Wakey wakey! Santa came! Santa came!" James aroused Audry from her slumber. Audry gave a grumble but soon realized that her nightmare was over. She gave a sigh of relief and rushed downstairs, almost running over Robert.

"Well, someone seems to have gotten into the Christmas Spirit!" Robert laughed.

"More like a change of heart. Merry Christmas by the way," Audry replied. And with that Robert swung James onto his back and hurried into the parlor.

---

"Mother? Do you think we could give our Christmas Dinner leftovers to the soup kitchen? And maybe we can help out too and by the way, a man asked for work yesterday and wanted to help around the house and…" Audry was cut off by her mother.

"Slow down! Alright for everything. We'll go later today or tomorrow and see if that man still wants the job," Mother replied.

"Yes a marvelous idea. We'll all go. Maybe even sing some Christmas carols to liven the spirits of the people there," Father chimed in. 'But I wonder what caused her change in heart. Hmmm. Maybe she read _A Christmas Carol_.'


End file.
